Ali Siddiqi and his mother were stopped in separate vehicles at the intersection of Lower Spadina Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd. West Tuesday evening. Suddenly, Siddiqi heard a noise that he thought was a car accident.

“While we waited, I just heard a loud bang, and I thought two cars had actually got into an accident because it was substantially shocking, the noise that it made,” he said. “Then I looked back in the rear-view mirror and her windshield had all just come totally smashed in. The glass was everywhere.”

Siddiqi’s mother was uninjured, but the windshield of her Honda Odyssey was destroyed.

“I was so scared so I closed my eyes,” Huma Siddiqi said. “When I opened my eyes, someone was knocking at my window. There was a pedestrian who came and asked me if I’m OK. I said ‘Yeah, I’m OK, but I’m a little shocked. What happened?’”

The Gardiner Expressway where the concrete fell.

A piece of the Gardiner Expressway concrete lodged in the windshield of the van.

Ali Siddiqui / Handout

The falling concrete shattered the windshield.

Ali Siddiqui / Handout

Some of the glass left by concrete which fell from the Gardiner Expressway and damaged a person’s van.

Some of the concrete which fell from the Gardiner Expressway and damaged a person’s van.

The largest piece of concrete was approximately 30 centimetres long and 15 centimetres wide, Ali said.

He called 911 and police investigated. No one from the city came to the scene, he said, and he’s worried he’ll have to pay the $300 deductible to get his windshield fixed.

“Nothing happened. Nothing came out of it,” he said. “Nobody from the city contacted us. We just got a police report and that was it.”

Councillor Jaye Robinson said the issue is still under investigation and city crews around working 24 hours a day to make sure the highway is safe. Despite that, she said, the city needs to do a better job of communicating with residents.

“There should have been an immediate response, so we’re looking with staff. We actually made the call this afternoon to say, please, we need to be responsive on these issues.”